METHOD, APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR THE PACKAGING AND VERIFICATION OF MEDICATION INFORMATION

• US 20150066205A1
• Filed: 08/29/2013
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnicell Incorporated
• Original Assignee: McKesson Automation Incorporated (Omnicell Inc)
• Inventors: Braun, Patrick J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,262,114 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/235
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/04 Packaging single articles
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/08 Packaging groups of articles, the articles being individually gripped or guided for transfer to the containers or receptacles
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/103 for packaging pills or tablets
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 9/045 for single articles, e.g. tablets
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/001 Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present invention may provide an efficient method of identifying unit doses of medication, and more specifically, to dispensing, identifying, packaging, and labeling unit doses of medication for distribution. In particular, methods may include receiving medication information, causing identifying information related to the medication information to be printed to a web of material, where the identifying information is printed at regular intervals, and preparing a medication unit dose to be dispensed to a container. Methods may further include verifying that the medication unit dose corresponds to the identifying information printed to the web of material, and joining the web of material to the container in response to the dispensed unit dose corresponding to the identifying information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving medication information;

causing identifying information related to the medication information to be printed to a web of material, wherein the identifying information is printed at regular intervals;

preparing a medication unit dose to be dispensed to a container;

verifying that the medication unit dose corresponds to the identifying information printed to the web of material; and

joining the web of material to the container in response to the dispensed unit dose corresponding to the identifying information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein verifying that the medication unit dose corresponds to the identifying information comprises:

capturing an image of the medication unit dose; and

comparing identifying characteristics of the image of the dispensed unit dose to identifying characteristics of a medication unit dose corresponding to the identifying information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein capturing an image of the medication unit dose comprises capturing an image of the medication unit dose dispensed to the container.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising indexing the web of material with the container such that the identifying information printed to the web of material is aligned with the container.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the medication information and corresponding identifying information comprises a medication type and a medication dose.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the medication information further comprises at least one of expiration date, lot number, manufacturer, manufacture date, or location of manufacture.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving medication information further comprises:

receiving medication information associated with a plurality of medication orders to be dispensed, each medication order including one or more unit doses of a single medication type and dose; and

ordering the medication orders into a dispense order.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein ordering the medications into a dispense order comprises:

analyzing the plurality of medication orders to be dispensed; and

ordering first and second medication orders including medications of similar appearance to include at least one medication order including a medication of a dissimilar appearance between them.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein medications of similar appearance have at least one of color, shape, size, or indicia in common.

10. An apparatus configured to package unit dose medications into containers comprising:

a printer configured to print identifying information about a medication to a web of material;

a dispenser configured to dispense a medication unit dose to a container;

an image capture device configured to capture an image of at least one of the printed web or a dispensed medication unit dose;

a processor configured to verify that a dispensed medication unit dose matches identifying information of the printed web; and

a joining station configured to join the printed web to a container containing the dispensed medication unit dose in response to the processor verifying that the dispensed medication unit dose matches the identifying information of the printed web.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein identifying information about a medication comprises medication type and medication dose.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the joining station comprises at least one of an ultrasonic welder or a heating element, each configured to seal the printed web of material to the container containing the dispensed medication unit dose.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising an indexing station configured to align the printed identifying information with the container containing the dispensed medication unit dose.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a medication hopper configured to supply medication to the dispenser.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a container forming station configured to form containers from a second web of material.

16. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code instructions stored therein, the computer-executable program code instructions comprising:

program code instructions for receiving an indication of a plurality of medication orders to be dispensed, wherein each medication order comprises one or more unit doses of a single medication type and dose;

program code instructions for ordering the plurality of medication orders to be dispensed into a dispensing order;

program code instructions for providing medication information related to a first medication order of the dispensing order to be dispensed;

program code instructions for causing identifying information related to the medication information to be printed to a web of material, wherein the identifying information is printed at regular intervals;

program code instructions for causing a medication unit dose to be dispensed to a container;

program code instructions for verifying that the unit dose dispensed to the container corresponds to the identifying information printed to the web of material; and

program code instructions for joining the web of material to the container in response to the dispensed unit dose corresponding to the identifying information.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the program code instructions for ordering the plurality of medication orders to be dispensed into a dispensing order comprises:

program code instructions for analyzing the medication type and dose of each of the plurality of medication orders; and

program code instructions for generating a dispensing order in which medication orders including medications of similar appearance are separated by at least one medication order including a medication of a dissimilar appearance.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein medications of similar appearance have at least one of a color, shape, size, or indicia in common.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the program code instructions for verifying that the unit dose dispensed to the container corresponds to the medication information comprises:

program code instructions for capturing an image of the dispensed unit dose; and

program code instructions for comparing the image of the dispensed unit dose to a known image of a medication unit dose corresponding to the medication information.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the medication information and corresponding identifying information comprises a medication type and a medication dose.